What if Walt Disney was the producer of Looney Tunes/Walt Disney Animated Classics/Anastasia
Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical fantasy comedy-drama adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, directed by Disney veteran directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and starring the voices of Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Hank Azaria, Christopher Lloyd, Angela Lansbury and Looney Tunes star Bernadette Peters. The film is a loose adaptation of the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, which claims that she, in fact, escaped the execution of her family. Its basic plot centers around an eighteen-year-old amnesiac orphan named Anya who, in hopes of finding some trace of her family, sides with con men who wish to take advantage of her likeness to the Grand Duchess; thus the film shares its plot with the 1956 film produced by 20th Century Fox, which, in turn, was based on the 1955 play by Marcelle Maurette. The film was met with criticism by some historians to its fantastical retelling of the life of the Grand Duchess, though it enjoyed a positive reception from many critics. From a $50 million budget, the film grossed $139,804,348 worldwide, making Anastasia a box office success. The film has been regarded as one of Disney's greatest animated classics. The film received nominations for several awards, including for Best Original Song ("Journey to the Past") and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score at the 70th Academy Awards. Anastasia was also the last film to be directed by Don Bluth, who was one of Disney's best film directors, since he would later retiring from film industry to focus on his career as a video game designer. However, Bluth announced he would to return to film industry, creating new films for Disney beginning with [[What if Walt Disney was the producer of Looney Tunes/Walt Disney Animated Classics/Dragon's Lair|an upcoming film adaptation of his famous video game Dragon's Lair]]. Its success spawned various adaptations of the film into other media, including a computer game, books, toys and a stage musical, which premiered in 2016. Plot In 1916, Tsar Nicholas II hosts a ball at the Catherine Palace to celebrate the Romanov tricentennial. His mother, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, is visiting from Paris, France and gives a music box and a necklace inscribed with the words “Together in Paris” as parting gifts to her youngest granddaughter, 8-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia. The ball is suddenly interrupted by the evil sorcerer Grigori Rasputin, the former royal advisor of the Romanovs until he was banished by Nicholas II for treason. Seeking revenge, Rasputin sold his soul in exchange for an unholy reliquary, which he uses to place a curse on the Romanov family, sparking the Russian Revolution. During the siege of the palace, only Marie and Anastasia are able to escape with the aid of 10-year-old servant boy Dimitri, who shows them a secret passageway in Anastasia's bedroom when Anastasia forgets her music box. Rasputin confronts the two royals outside on a frozen river, only to fall through the ice and drown. The pair manage to reach a moving train, but only Marie climbs aboard while Anastasia falls, hitting her head on the platform and suffering amnesia. Ten years later, in 1926, Russia is under communist rule and Marie has publicly offered 10 million rubles for the safe return of her granddaughter. Dimitri and his friend Vladimir search for a look-alike to bring to Paris and pass off as Anastasia so they can collect the reward. Elsewhere, Anastasia — now 18 years old and using the name "Anya" — leaves the rural orphanage where she grew up, still suffering from amnesia. Accompanied by a stray puppy she names "Pooka", she decides to head to Saint Petersburg, inspired by the passage on the necklace she still has. She is unable to leave Russia due to not having an exit visa, but an old woman advises her to see Dimitri at the abandoned palace where he has made residence. There she encounters Dimitri and Vladimir, who are impressed by her resemblance to the "real" Anastasia and decide to take her with them to Paris. Bartok, Rasputin's albino bat minion, is nearby and notices his master's dormant reliquary suddenly revived by Anastasia's presence; it drags him to limbo, where Rasputin survives. Enraged to hear that Anastasia escaped the curse, Rasputin sends his demonic minions from the reliquary to kill her; despite two attempts, the trio manage to (unwittingly) foil him, forcing Rasputin and Bartok to travel back to the surface. The trio eventually reach Paris and go to meet Marie, who has given up the search after being tricked numerous times by impostors. Despite this, Marie's cousin Sophie quizzes Anastasia to confirm her identity. Though Anastasia offers every answer taught to her, Dimitri finally realizes she is the real Anastasia when she (without being taught to) vaguely recollects how he had saved her ten years prior. Sophie, also convinced of Anastasia's identity, arranges a meeting with Marie at the Palais Garnier Opera house. There, Dimitri tries to establish an introduction but Marie refuses, having already heard of Dimitri's initial scheme to con her. Anastasia overhears the conversation and angrily leaves. Dimitri then kidnaps Marie and takes her to see Anastasia, showing her the music box he recovered during their escape. Anastasia finally meets Marie and regains her memories as they converse, convincing the empress of her identity. The two are joyfully reunited. Marie offers Dimitri the reward money, but to her surprise he refuses it and leaves for Russia. At Anastasia's return celebration, Marie informs her of Dimitri's gesture, leaving Anastasia torn between staying or going with him. Pooka suddenly runs off; Anastasia chases him to the Pont Alexandre III, where she is trapped and attacked by Rasputin. Dimitri returns to save her, but is soon injured and knocked unconscious. In the struggle, Anastasia manages to get hold of Rasputin's reliquary and crush it under her foot; Rasputin disintegrates and dies. In the aftermath, Dimitri and Anastasia reconcile; they elope, and Anastasia sends a farewell letter to Marie and Sophie, promising to return one day. The couple are then seen kissing on a riverboat. Bartok shares a kiss with a female bat before bidding the audience farewell. Cast *Meg Ryan as Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia **Kirsten Dunst as 8-year-old Anastasia. *John Cusack as Dimitri **Glenn Walker Harris Jr. as younger Dimitri. *Kelsey Grammer as Vladimir "Vlad" Vanya Voinitsky Vasilovich *Christopher Lloyd as Grigori Rasputin **Jim Cummings as Grigori Rasputin's singing voice *Hank Azaria as Bartok *Angela Lansbury as The Dowager Empress Marie *Bernadette Peters as Sophie Stanislovskievna Somorkov-Smirnoff *Andrea Martin as "Comrade" Phlegmenkoff *Rick Jones as Tsar Nicholas II of Russia Production Development In the late 1990s, after releasing many successful animated films such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and The Lion King (1994), Walt Disney was on the lookout for new material that his animators could adapt for the screen. In 1993, after Marcelle Maurette's 1955 play Anastasia was brought to his attention, Walt told directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman to see what they could do with the material. They would later adapt story elements from the stage play Pygmalion with the peasant Anya being molded into a regal woman. Around this same time, screenwriter Eric Tuchman had written a script that was described as "very adult, very based in reality, all about politics, and without any magic or comedy". When Bluth and Goldman began researching the actual events, they reported to Walt the history of Anastasia and the Romanov dynasty was too dark for the film, which Walt decided to use the basic facts of the Romanovs' demise and the Russian Revolution as a starting point and ask, "What if this girl escaped, and what would have happened to her? opting to tell a myth or a fairy tale", which it decided to adding elements from the plot from 20th Century Fox's 1956 film Anastasia, also based on the play, to the film, except the fact Bluth and Goldman had reworked Anna Anderson (later renamed Anya) to be the real Anastasia instead of being a imposter like she was in the play. In January 1994, Bruce Graham and Susan Gauthier reworked Tuchman's script into a lighthearted romantic comedy. When Graham and Gauthier moved onto other projects, husband-and-wife screenwriting team Bob Tzudiker and Noni White were hired for additional rewrites. For the villains, Bluth also did not take into consideration depicting Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and initially toyed with the idea of a police chief with a vendetta against Anastasia. Instead, Walt decided to have Grigori Rasputin as the villain, explaining it was because of "all the different things they did to try to destroy Rasputin and what a horrible man he really was, the more it seemed appetizing to make him the villain". In reality, Rasputin was already dead when the Romanovs were assassinated. In addition to this, Bluth created the idea for Bartok, the albino bat, as a sidekick for Rasputin. "I just thought the villain had to have a comic sidekick, just to let everyone know that it was all right to laugh. A bat seemed a natural friend for Rasputin. Making him a white bat came later - just to make him different." After Pocahontas, The Pebble and the Penguin, Balto and Matilda were completed, Walt and his team began work on Anastasia, which was still on after Walt's death in 1995. Casting Music Release Marketing Home video release Reception Critical response Box office Trivia * Source *1